Magnetic separator for pills



g- 1959 A. F. ISRAELSCN ETAL 2,900,076

' MAGNETIC SEPARATOR FOR-PILLS Original Filed Oct. 17, 1956 v INVENTORS. ARLO F. ISRAELSON Y EMERSON J. TENPAS B ATTORNE Y United States Patent O MAGNETIC SEPARATOR FOR PILLS Arlo F. Israelson and Emerson J. Tenpas, Erie, Pa., as-

signors to F. J. Stokes Machine Company, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Substituted for abandoned application Serial No. 616,570, October 17, 1956. This application December '19, 1957, Serial No. 703,979

6 Claims. (Cl. 209-215) This invention relates to magnetic separators and, more particularly, to magnetic separators for sorting small objects such as pills.

This application constitutes a substitute application of patent application, Serial No. 616,570, filed October 17, 1956, which has been abandoned.

In the manufacture of certain medicinal pills, the cores of the pills contain a particular substance which is inserted in the pill and then coated with another substance. Because of the high production rate at which the pills are coated in automatic machines, the machines may occasionally fail to put a core in a pill and, therefore, an indispensable ingredient is omitted from that pill. In some instances, it is diflicult to sort the defective pills from the non-defective. pills.

It has been determined that if iron could be added to the cores,- the pills could be passed over a magnetic device and the pills which were provided with proper cores could be sorted from the pills not having proper cores. It has been discovered that by using a magnetic roll of a specific design, the pills which areproperly constituted and not defective can be separated from the pills which are defective.

The present invention discloses a machine having a magnetic roll with a specific shaped face which will accommodate the pills and which will concentrate the magnetic flux through a path over which the pills must each pass.

It is, accordingly, an object of this invention to provide a magnetic separator which is simple in construction, economical to manufacture, and simple and efiicient in operation.

Another object of this invention is to provide a machine for magnetically sorting pills.

A further object ofthis invention is to provide a specific design of magnetic roll for sorting small articles of manufacture, some of which contain ferrous material and others of which do not contain ferrous material.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a roll having a peripheral groove therein with means to provide a magnetic field across the groove.

With the above and other objects in view, the present invention consists of the combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawing and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims, it being understood that changes may be made in the form, size, proportions, and minor details of construction without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

In the drawing:

Fig. l is a view of a magnetic roll having a peripheral groove therein according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a view of the roll shown in Fig. 1 connected in a machine for sorting pills; and

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal cross sectional view of the roll according to the invention.

Now with more specific reference to the drawing, a roll 11 is shown supported in a machine 10. The roll Ice 11 has -a peripheral groove .12 therein which is deeper at its center and it becomes shallower at its edges. Thus, the peripheral groove "12 is contoured to approximately the shape of the pills to be sorted. A gap 14 is formed in the periphery of the roll 11 and two halves 15 and 16 of the roll 11 are separated at the gap 14.

The roll 11 is supported on anon-magnetic shaft 19 which will be mounted between suitable bearings. The roll .11 will have suitable magnets supported therein and it may be mounted below a chute 20 which may have a suitable cover 21 thereon and a suitable end shield 22. The lower portion of bottom 23 of the chute 20 will be made of non-magnetic material and will terminate in a contour portion 24 which will be shaped to fit into the groove '12.

The two halves 15 and 16 of the roll 11 are cup shaped and are supported on the non-magnetic shaft 19 as shown with the gap 14 therebetween. Eight bar magnets 40 aresupported between the cylindrical cup shaped members '15 and .16 and are atached to the bottom of the cup shaped members '15 and 16 at 41 and 42. The bar magnets 40 all have like poles in one direction. This makes the magnetic circuit radially outwardly and across the gap 14. The shaft 19 must be non-magnetic or it would short the magnetic circuit.

A non-magnetic stainless steel scraper 26 supported adjacent the bottom of the roll 11 will be contoured to fit into the groove 12 in the face of the roll '11 at 25 and a strip of very light, very flexible cloth felt or other flexible sheet material 28 will be attached at 27 to the end shield '22. The sheet 28 prevents the pills from feeding more than one at a time to the magnetic roll 11. It also gives better control of non-magnetic pills by preventing them from ricocheting off the desired path. Pills 29 will be fed down the chute 20 and will be discharged over the end portion 24 onto the groove '12. The pills containing the magnetic core will be attracted to the roll 11 and held tightly thereto as they move with the roll 11 as it rotates. Then as the roll 11 contines to rotate, the pills come down with it past a location 32. Defective pills 33 from which the magnetic core has been omitted, not being attracted by the magnetic roll 11, will be rejected and dropped from the roll 11 into a container 34. The pills which are properly constituted will be attracted to the roll 11 as at 36 and will be scraped off by means of the end 25 of the scraper 26 and will fall into a container '38.

With the machine disclosed herein, it has been discovered that with the chute 20 disposed at an angle of between seventeen and twenty degrees to -a horizontal, the pills can be fed through the machine 010 at the rate of'from between five hundred to six hundred pills per minute and the quantity of iron in the core of the pill need not be more than live to ten milligrams.

The foregoing specification sets forth the invention in its preferred practical forms but the structure shown is capable of modification within a range of equivalents without departing from the invention which is as broadly novel as is commensurate with the appended claims.

The embodiments of the invention in which anexelusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A machine for sorting pills containing ferrous material from pills not containing ferrous material comprising a magnetic roll having a peripheral groove therein, means to provide a magnetic field across said groove, said groove being contoured to fit the general contour of one side of said pills, a chute disposed at an angle of between seventeen and twenty degrees to said roll and having an extension on the bottom thereof contoured to fit said groove and disposed therein, a cover overlying said chute and said groove and having a flexible fabric member extending over a portion of said groove whereby said pills are held in contact with said groove, a first container disposed below one side of said roll and adapted to receive pills not containingferrous'material which fall from said roll, a scraper disposed along the bottom of said roll having an extension thereof extending into said groove and adapted to scrape pills containing ferrous material from said roll, and a second container disposedbelow said roll to receive said ferrous pills.

2. The machine recited in claim 1 wherein said scraper and said chute bottoms are made of non-magnetic material.

3. The machine recited in claim 2 wherein said rollhas a peripheral surface made of two spaced cylindrical members separated therefrom and said space between said cylindrical members constitutes the bottom of said groove.

7 4. A magnetic separator comprising a magnetic roll made of two halves having a peripheral gap between said two halves, means to provide a magnetic field across said gap, the outer edges of said halves defining said gap extending outwardly and axially to form a groove terminating at its bottom in said gap, chute means to direct magnetic articles of manufacture and non-magnetic articles of manufacture onto said groove in said roll, scraper means to scrape said magnetic articles from said roll at,

a proper point, said non-magnetic articles dropping from said roll before reaching said scraper means, support means attached to a fixed member above said chute.

means, and a cloth member attached to the end of said support means, said cloth member being spaced from said roll and adapted to overlie said articles to direct said articles on said roll.

5, A, magnetic roll for a magnetic separating device comprising a non-magnetic shaft, two cup shaped members made of magnetic material and supported on said shaft with the open ends of said cup shaped members facing each other and a nonmagnetic gap therebetween, and bar magnets disposed around said shaft with one end of each said bar magnet engaging the inside of the bottom of each said cup shaped member, the edge of each said cup shaped member being reduced in thickness aroundmember being'reducedin thicknessaround'the periphery thereof adjacent the other whereby a peripheral grooveis' provided; 1

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 248,196 Muller j Oct. 11, 1881' 1,536,541 Ullrich May 5, 1925 2,272,719 Maynard Feb. 10, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 503,907 Belguim June 30, 1951 

